Wednesday Q & A: How to get Lightroom 4 Effects In CS6

Comparison of Lightroom 4 Develop Module  and Adobe Camera Raw Basic panel.

I saw today's search query come through bringing someone to The Gallery.  At first I just passed right over it.  By the time I finished checking out the list, that one search item stuck in my mind.  My initial thought was "what could this person mean?"  I seems to be sort of a crisscross type of question.  I'm sure the intent wasn't the database functions, where Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 (and before) far outstrips the speed of Adobe Bridge (that comes with Adobe Photoshop CS Number) .  So, I believe the questioner was talking about getting the type of adjustments you can get in LR4 Development Panel while using CS6 (or 5).  Before Lightroom was introduced, I (and everyone else) did everything in Photoshop.  There wasn't another Adobe choice.  Since Lightroom was introduced the pendulum has swung the other way.  Now, I do everything I can in LR4 and only go to CS6 to do what can't be done in LR4.  So, to get the answer to today's question, hit the "Read More".

The questioner is using CS5.  It would be better if he/she were using CS6, but we can deal with it.  Several friends and/or students have come by asking for advice.  "I was thinking about getting LR4 and CS6.  What do ya think?"  The big, probing question I give back is "what are you going to do with LR4".  The answer, in several cases, has been that they understand the Develop Module is very good in LR4.  Okay, what else?  Some have said that they have an organizational system that works for them and they probably wouldn't be changing that aspect of their workflow. 

That's key point number one.

The next area to probe is "what type of things would they be doing with their shots"?  If they plan on doing simple things like color correcting, cropping and printing, there's one (actually two) answer.  If they say their plan on getting crazy with their images, it's a completely different answer.

Key point number two.

The third thing to explore is the budget.  If price is no object and/or they're loose with money, we'll go one way.  If the budget is a consideration, we'll turn the other way. 

Really big Key point number three.

So, the question is "How to get Lightroom Effects in Photoshop.

·         If you have Photoshop CS5 or CS6 you get a freebie.  The Develop Module is exactly the same (functionally) as Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).  You also have Adobe Bridge.  From Adobe Bridge, select the image you want to work on.  You can right click on it to open a dropdown dialog box.  The top choice is Open.  The very next one down is Open in Camera Raw. There's your ticket to every option you'll find in the Develop Module of Lightroom.  Anything you can do in Lightroom you can do in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw).  If you're working with RAW files you can bounce back and forth between CS6 and ACR.

·         If you don't have a version of Photoshop and you only do straight things to your images, go for LR4.  You'll have a great DAM (Digital Asset Management) application and have all the controls you'll ever want to make adjustments to your images.  The price difference between CS6 and LR4 is $620.00 versus $120.00 (B&H today) respectively.  I don't know about you, but $500.00 would make me think about it for a bit.

·         If you either do or think you might do some strange things to your images and don't have Photoshop, you probably want to take a look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.  It gives you more of Photoshop than you would probably ever use and costs $85.00 (B&H today).  If you find PSE 11 too restrictive you can always move up to full blown Photoshop.  PSE 11 has a version of ACR associated with it.  You can do the "Lightroom effects" with PSE the same way as in CS6.

Whatever your needs are, you can get "Lightroom effects" if you have another Adobe photo editing application.